Magnetic Field Induced Commensurability and Correlation Effect in Organic Conductors

Speaker: 
Weida Wu, University of Texas
Date & Time: 
November 23, 2004 - 9:00am
Location: 
-
Magnetic Field Induced Commensurability and Correlation Effect in Organic Conductors
Physics and Astronomy
Weida Wu, University of Texas

The Magic Angle Effect is a long standing mystery in Quasi-1-Dimensional
Organic superconductors where large resistance dips were found when a
magnetic field is aligned at the commensurate angles (magic angles), which
correspond to inter-chain directions. From thermoelectric transport
measurements, we discovered giant Nersnt resonances at magic angles in
(TMTSF)2PF6, where the Nernst signal rises to a peak and sharply drops to
zero as magnetic field approaches a magic angle, then changes its sign and
proceeds anti-symmetrically as magnetic field moves away from the magic
angle. The sign change of the Nernst signal at the magic angles strongly
suggests that the transport is effectively coherent 2-dimensional when the
magnetic field is close to a magic angle. The sign of the Nernst signal is
determined by the field component normal to the coherent planes. The
amplitude of the peak Nernst signal reaches a maximum at ~1K as
temperature is lowered, then falls off exponentially and diminishes below
~200mK. The Nernst signal is highly non-linear. Its temperature
dependence at difference fields seems to collapse to a single curve when
normalized. Calculations based on tight binding band structure and
Boltzmann transport fails to explain either the angular dependence or the
magnitude of the giant Nernst effect in (TMTSF)2PF6. Therefore, strong
correlation effects must be considered in order to understand both the
resistance and the Nernst magic angle effect. Present phenomenological
models include field induced inter-plane decoupling and/or the presence of
superconducting vortices.

The NMR Spin-Lattice Relaxation measurements show that there is no
difference between magic angles and non magic angles in the temperature
dependence of spin-lattice relaxation rates 1/T1. 1/T1(T) approaches a
Korringa-like relation at low temperature, which agrees with previous
measurements. Therefore, there is neither a spin gap nor a single particle
gap involved in magic angle effect.